


Death Dates

by queerkyu



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends Choi Beomgyu & Choi Yeonjun, Best Friends Huening Kai & Kang Taehyun, Death, False Identity, M/M, Mentions of Cancer, Oblivious Choi Soobin, Pneumonia, Romance, Suicidal Thoughts, Temporary Character Death, Whipped Choi Yeonjun, everyone knows their death date
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28108068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queerkyu/pseuds/queerkyu
Summary: "Soobin was never sure if there was a god, but considering the fact that he had just died and yet remains alive, there must be one. He wasn't totally sure why or how he was still breathing, but he was glad he was.".Soobin was scheduled to die at 4:44pm on Thursday 4th of April. So why he was alive mere hours afterwards was a mystery to him. And despite Yeonjun’s own date growing closer and closer, he can’t resist trying to figure out exactly how and why Soobin is still walking and talking.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So this is my first AO3 fic, so I really hope that you enjoy it and it comes out ok overall. There will be a lot of mentions of death + impending death, cancer and also will have some suicidal thoughts at some points. So please only read if you're comfortable! I'll be attempting to post at least 1 chapter a week, since I have to work around university, but I'll do my best!  
> \- River  
> (p.s. if you'd like to follow me on twitter, my AU account is @jjongswol and my main account is @queerkyu)

Soobin was never sure if there was a god, but considering the fact that he had just died and yet remains alive, there must be one. He wasn't totally sure why or how he was still breathing, but he was glad he was. Now the question only remained of what he was to do. His family had already left, assuming he was dead and gone, and he couldn't exactly just walk out of the morgue and pretend he had never died. What would people think if they saw his death date had passed? Would they think he was a freak?

 _First order of business. Getting the hell out of this place. I can figure out the rest later._ He slipped down from the cold metal table and landed on his bare feet. _What the hell is going to happen with a funeral? Do I go and tell Ma that I'm alive?_ Soobin didn't have enough time to think it over as the door to the morgue swung open and a woman in a white lab coat walked in, looking at a watch on her wrist. She looked up, making unplanned eye contact with the boy, and sighed.

"Did you just die?" Soobin's eyes were as wide as saucers, his body unmoving from the spot he was on. He forced himself to move his head up and down roughly. "For god's sake. Here." The woman grabbed a pair of slippers from a bag that was hung up by the door and handed them to Soobin, almost throwing them at him. His body began to work again, his arms flying up to intercept the slippers. The unnamed woman walked over to a cabinet on the left side of the room and grabbed a clipboard, flipping through the sheets attached to it.

"Uh. Excuse me but, why am I-" Soobin's voice was quiet, and slightly raspy as though it hadn't been used in a while.

"Alive? Who knows. Kim Soobin right?" He nodded at the woman's words. "Found you, Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, and then Secondary Lung." Soobin winced. Like he needed any more reminders of his apparent death.

"Can you tell me wh-"

"What to do? Not exactly, but I can help you out. First things first, you can't see your family. Sorry, that's just the way it works." Soobin almost tried to argue but something deep inside made him keep quiet. Maybe it was the way the woman was speaking, as though she'd seen this happen before. Or perhaps it was pure fear and confusion keeping him from opening his lips. "I'll have to notify the League, but they'll be able to sort this. Whatever you do in future, cover your date and stay away from people you knew." She directed the last sentence to Soobin who watched with curiosity as she typed out a message into her phone, the clipboard now tucked under one arm.

 _Maybe this was normal. Maybe tons of people survived past their date._ Soobin couldn't help but try to think positive, but his brain would not allow it. _But then why would she say to stay away from people I knew. Why would I have to?_ Soobin gulped, letting his anxieties wash over him and moving his eyes to the floor as he played with his fingertips. He was still wearing his hospital gown. Why he was put into a hospital despite everyone knowing his death was unavoidable, he wasn't sure, but at least it had been comfortable.

"Sit." The woman patted the metal table he had been lying on when he awoke and Soobin winced.

"I'm sorry but… is there anywhere else I can sit?" The woman looked up at Soobin's wide eyes and nervous air and gave him a strange look, one that Soobin didn't quite understand.

"Sure. You can sit in my chair over there. I just need to check you over quickly, make sure everything's working." Soobin frowned. _Everything's working? I doubt it, I do have cancer after all._ He padded over to the chair and hesitantly lowered himself into it, the room unnaturally silent, although he supposed that was normal for a morgue.

"What's going to happen?" He looked up at the woman, her hands whizzing back and forth on her phone. She stopped, looking up at him and giving that strange look again.

"Well. It's hard to explain."

"Try me. I'm supposed to be dead right now, I think I'll be able to grasp it." The woman chuckled at Soobin's response and slipped her phone into her lab coat’s pocket.

"I've sent for someone. She'll arrive soon to collect you, as soon as I've checked you over. You'll have to go to a safe house for a while, somewhere you can live until you've got a job and a new identity. Then yo-"

"No wait stop. A new identity? I know I'm probably legally dead or something, but can't we just report that I'm alive? Surely this happens all the time?" Soobin's voice seemed desperate, his head was reeling. _Why do I have to get a new identity? What the hell is happening._

"I'm sorry, but this is pretty rare. Not many people survive past death date, and the government doesn't want to give the rest of the citizens false hope. So anyone who does survive has to go under the radar. You can't be Kim Soobin anymore." The woman leant against the cabinet next to Soobin and continued, her voice gentle and apologetic. “Only essential people know, like doctors, authorities, and of course government officials. It's completely random, entirely luck. There’s no way of telling who might survive past death date, and it doesn’t happen very often. Maybe once or twice within a month. Honestly… Surviving? It’s as much a curse as it is a blessing.” She reached out her hand and patted Soobin’s shoulder awkwardly, his gaze on the floor as he processed everything. Surely this wasn’t meant to be happening? Or perhaps this was some sort of chemical reaction in his brain after it shut down. Maybe this is all a dying illusion.

“So I’m alive, but I can’t really… Live.” The woman sent him the odd look for a third time and he closed his eyes and put his hands to his forehead in frustration. “Ok so what then. I get a new identity?”

“Then you simply go back to living. You stay in the safe house until you’re stable enough to get yourself a place to live. The government will secure you all the documents you need to live as another person without arousing suspicion.” The woman took her phone back out, checking the messages and standing back up straight. “Now I’ll just check you o-”

“Last few questions, sorry. What about death? If I died and came back, or didn’t die at all, what happens in the future? And my face? What if people recognise it?” The woman laughed at how panicked Soobin appeared to be, and answered with a slight smile on her face.

“Most people who survive past death date live until they’re elderly. All traces of previous illness or injury disappear from their bodies, and they live a long and healthy life. You won’t get a new death date, so who knows when you’ll pass, but it's likely it won’t be for a long time.” She paused, checking her phone again briefly. Well that explains wanting to check up on him. _Does this mean the cancer is completely gone?_ Soobin brought himself out of his thoughts as she continued. “As for your face, it doesn’t matter too much. Some people who survived past death date even became famous. As long as you avoid people you knew, always go by your new name and identity, and make sure to cover your date, you should be fine. There’s thousands of people in the world, so you can always play it off as just having an extremely similar appearance. Wait in here, I’ll go get my equipment.”

“Oh. Ok I think I get it, but I’m nervous. I don’t want to be a different person. I like Kim Soobin.”

“I know we just met, but so do I. But it’s only a name change. You are still you, your name doesn’t change who you are.” Soobin smiled at her response, and as she was about to leave he called out to her.

“Wait! I never… I never asked your name.” The woman grinned widely, slipping her phone back inside her pocket.

“My name? My name is Lia. Even though it wasn’t always.” Lia left, the door swinging shut behind her, so that Soobin was left alone. And he finally understood what the look she had kept giving him had meant. It was a look of understanding. _She knew exactly how he was feeling._


	2. Rewind

Soobin rested his head against the cool car window, his eyes half closed over from fatigue and the world around the vehicle zooming past in a blur of colours. He was sitting in the back seat of the car, and the woman who had collected him was driving, eyes focused on the road ahead of her. 

"Here kid." She grabbed a folder from the front seat and threw it back to him, his eyes shooting open as it landed on his lap. "There's your new identity. Brief details, no documents yet though, we'll have those sorted in the next few days."

"I'm not a kid." Soobin replied indignantly, opening the folder and looking down at the name in front of him. "Choi… Hajoon?" 

"You are to me. And what's wrong with it?" Ryujin, as Lia has introduced her as, sniffed and took one hand off the wheel to take a sip of the coffee she had next to her.

"Nothing. I just prefer Kim Soobin, but I suppose I can't be me anymore." He closed the folder after skimming the information and resigned himself to staring out of the window. 

"You suppose right. In some cases you can keep your given name and just use the new family name, but that's only if you're planning to move to another city." Ryujin turned on the indicators to make a left turn. "If you want to talk about that possibility then we can discuss it at a later date, but until then, go by Hajoon. The safe house may be run by the government but not everyone who works there is aware of the reasons for it." 

Soobin sighed and nodded his agreement towards the rear view mirror, so that Ryujin could see it. 

Lia had been right. There were no traces of the cancer that had previously been in his body, and he seemed to be in perfect health, which was strange for him. After being unwell for so long, being healthy was a strange feeling. And the fact he couldn’t share that with his family was weighing on his mind.

“How do I know any of this is even the truth?” Soobin burst out finally, frustration in his voice and anger written all over his face. “I just came with you, without any proof. I agreed to what you were both telling me and went along with the plan. How do I know this isn’t some sort of big set u-”   
  
“We showed you our government ID’s. If that wasn’t enough then I don't know what to tell you, but the authorities will take action if you decide to leave or try to go back to being Kim Soobin. I’m sorry but it’s just the way this all works. We’re almost there, pulling up in a second.” Ryujin's tone was matter-of-fact, and straight to the point, so Soobin went quiet. 

The car eventually came to halt outside a large building, that was less like a house and more like a mansion. Soobin's eyes widened as he stepped out of the car, red sneakers hitting the gravel. He shoved his hands into the pockets of the large black hoodie that was part of the outfit Ryujin had thrown at him when she arrived at the morgue and stood up straight awkwardly. 

"Look alive kid. We'll head in now, let me grab your bags." The bags Ryujin spoke of were 2 backpacks, 1 stuffed with some spare clothes that the woman had brought him earlier, and the other filled with things his family had apparently wanted to bury him with. 

Soobin was unsure of what was going to happen in terms of a funeral, but he assumed the government would be doing something. Until now, Soobin had been too busy processing that he was alive and healthy to even think about the fact he would never see his family again. 

Although considering he had previously thought he was going to be dead and would never see them anyway, he wondered why now his chest hurt so much. Why was his ribcage pressing so tightly on his heart, and why was every breath he took was difficult to let back out.

Ryujin threw the backpack of clothes to him and Soobin, zoned out, did nothing to catch it. The bag fell to the floor, and Ryujin sighed. Soobins eyes were far away, his breathing shallow and his hands curled into fists inside the hoodie's pocket. 

"Kid. I know you're hurting, and scared. Hell everyone who's been through this was. But we don't have time for you to breakdown now. We need to get you checked in so we can begin sorting out your life." Soobin shook his head gently and bent to pick up the backpack. 

"What life." Soobin muttered. And Ryujin pretended not to hear. 

Soobin followed Ryujin towards the doors of the building, his feet crunching the gravel as he did. The doors were large and wooden, with black painted patterns all over them, and Ryujin pushed hard on one of them to heave it open. 

“Remember kid, introduce yourself as Choi Hajoon whenever you’re asked. That’s who you are now.”   
  
“For the last time, I’m not a kid. I’m pretty sure I’m older than you.” Soobin huffed, shuffling into the building behind her. She laughed.

“I call you kid because you’re fresh. New. You have no idea what's happening, just like a kid.” Soobin looked annoyed and he grabbed the second backpack from her hands.   
  
“Oh great, thanks for the reminder.” 

“Here we go.” As Soobin had been focused on Ryujin, he realised that just inside the doors of the building was a large reception, and the two had walked right up to a desk in the centre of the room. “Hey Sihyeon! Are you back there?” 

A woman popped her head out from an open door to the left of the desk, and eventually she twisted her whole body to stumble out of the room holding a stack of papers. She staggered to the desk and plopped the papers down into a messy pile, brushing a strand of hair out of her face as she did, and looked up at Soobin.

“Ryujin! Is this Hajoon? I’ve got his room all sorted, and all the schedules for the next week are being sorted right now, Yiren is working on them!” The woman, Sihyeon, went silent as another voice called out from the room she had previously been in.   


“Just trying to find a time slot for his identity discussion, this week is packed!” Soobin played with his fingertips inside the hoodie pocket and looked towards the floor. Ryujin nudged him.

“Now that you’re here, we need you to sign an act of secrecy, we can’t have you going round blabbing about this to everyone! After that, we’ll get someone to show you around the building, and then you will sign the forms finalising your new name and identity as soon as Yiren can find a slot!” Sihyeon explained, thumbing through the stack of papers in front of her.

“I swear normally it’s not this difficult, are you sure we have spare time slots this week Sihyeon?” The voice called from the room again and Sihyeon chuckled. She pulled out a piece of paper, slapping it onto the desk in front of Soobin and offering him a pen. 

“I’d better try to help her. And I’m sure Ryujin already told you this, but now that you’re here, you can’t use the name Soobin anymore. Some people in this building don’t know about this identity reassignment project, so don’t make our lives hard by revealing it to them.” Sihyeon smiled brightly and turned, heading back to the door she had come from and slipping inside.

“There you go kid. Sign on the dotted line to prove you won’t go around telling everyone about this.” Soobin bent down to the desk and signed the line, his hands clammy and the pen almost slipping from his grip.

“So I essentially just signed my whole identity away.”

“Yes, but don’t worry, you’ll get a new one soon enough. Plus signing means that the government has permission to burn you from the books. You’ll officially be dead, your funeral will go ahead, you’ll be buried, you’ll have a death certificate. Essentially everything your family will need for closure.” Soobin placed the pen down on the desk and put his hand to his temple. He felt slightly lightheaded.

“But I have to go around living my life, knowing that my family will be visiting an empty grave?! Soobin tugged at the end of the hoodie’s sleeve. “That’s not fair.”

“Whoever said life was fair?”

“No one. But I thought maybe death would be.” Ryujin went quiet at the boy's reply and frowned. 

“Well for now let’s get you shown around the building. I have to leave soon, I have work to do, but tomorrow you’ll probably go through briefing and get to meet the others here who are under the identity reassignment project. And again, not everyone who works here knows about this. So don’t-”

“Introduce myself as Soobin. I know.” Ryujin grinned at Soobin and grabbed hold of his shoulders, spinning him around and shouting back to Sihyeon.

“I’m taking Hajoon to his room, what number is it?”

“13! Get Choi to show him around afterwards!” The woman shouted from the room behind the desk. There was a loud thud and a noise of pain. “Yiren what the hell, you hit my foot!”

“Sorry!” 

Ryujin began pushing Soobin towards a large set of stairs to the left of the desk, and the boy looked at her warily as they halted at the bottom.

“Alright kid, follow me.” Ryujin started up the stairs, Soobin following close behind with the backpack of clothes slung over his shoulder and the other dangling from his fingertips.

“Please can you not call me kid?” Soobin’s voice was low and shaky, and Ryujin felt a stab in her heart, so she went quiet and led the way down a corridor at the top of the stairs. 

“This is room 13. You’ll be staying here until you’re ready to leave. You’ll be collected tomorrow for briefing, so you can learn more about your time here, but for now all you need to know is that once your identity is confirmed, you’ll be able to leave the premises to go job hunting. You’ll remain in this safe house until you’re stable enough to find a home of your own.” Ryujin took the second backpack from Soobin's hands and put down on the top of the bed, smiling at the boy who’s eyes were trained on the floor.

“So… This is home now?” Soobin muttered and turned to take in the room properly. It was decently well lit, a large window with dark curtains pulled back taking up most of the opposite wall to the door. The bed was decently sized, a double with a grey comforter and multiple lavish cushions. On the wall opposite the bed was a large desk with a computer, and there was a large wardrobe and chest of doors next to the door they had entered through.

“Listen Hajoon,” Soobin winced. He didn’t like how it felt to be called by that name.  _ It isn’t my name.  _ “This isn’t a prison. We aren’t punishing you. I know it’s scary, and god knows how upset you feel at not being able to see your family. But being here is for the best. I have to leave now, but someone will come in about 10 minutes ok? They’ll show you around the building.” 

Ryujin gave a sad smile to Soobin and closed the door behind her as she left. This was it. Soobin was utterly alone. He let himself fall down onto the bed and stared at the floor, unblinking.  _ This can’t be happening.  _

He looked towards the window. Outside, he could see part of the roof of the building, and for a tiny moment, he thought he caught a flash of blue. 

_ No. That’s my imagination. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I wanted to do a second update today so people could learn a little more about the story, but after this I'll be sticking to one update a week (may change depending on my personal commitments)  
> I really hope you like this so far and will look forward to the future chapters, I'll do my best to update as often as I can!  
> \- River


End file.
